FRANKFURT, Oct 30 (Reuters) - The new boss of German gases
group Linde cut the company's full-year and
medium-term profit targets on Thursday, blaming a faltering
global economy and sending Linde's shares down sharply.

The industrial gases group cut its 2014 earnings outlook,
saying it now expected its core profit to come in flat. It also
dumped its medium-term profit targets and said it expected an
operating profit of 4.5-4.7 billion euros and a reported return
on capital employed (ROCE) of 11-12 percent in 2017.

Linde, which makes gases such as oxygen, nitrogen and
hydrogen used by the engineering and auto industries, had
originally set itself a 2016 target of achieving a group
operating profit of at least 5 billion euros and a reported ROCE
of around 13 percent.

The company had anticipated it would achieve a moderate
improvement in group operating profit in 2014. It still expects
solid growth in revenue in 2014 after adjusting for exchange
rate effects.

"We have to take account of the fact that economic growth
has been much weaker than we all expected," Chief Executive
Wolfgang Buechele said in a statement.
Continuación...